Military History Institute Opens Archive Building, Plans Ceremony
By Deborah Fitts
September 2004

CARLISLE, Pa. - Researchers are flocking in record numbers to the brand-new, $13.5 million home of the U.S. Army Military History Institute, which opened Aug. 2 on the grounds of the Army War College.

The public is invited to the official opening ceremony on Sept. 24.

The institute's collections were closed for three months to accommodate the move. The institute bade goodbye to Upton Hall, its home since 1967, for the switch to the state-of-the-art building, which boasts 67,000 square feet of space.

"It is wonderful," declared Michael Lynch, director of operations for the Army Heritage and Education Center. "Visitors are really going to like it. It has a very user-friendly atmosphere, with resources right at your fingertips to access one of the world's greatest military history collections."

The new facility, "the first archive building the army's ever built," according to Lynch, for the first time in one place offers access to the collections, including books, manuscripts, photographs and "microform" (microfilm and microfiche). The reading room seats twice as many people as Upton's, and is "bright and open," Lynch said. Whereas Upton had three computers, the new reading room has 22 - 14 accessing the catalogs and eight for Internet access or word processing.

Five stack areas provide 4,500 square feet of storage, and a sixth stack area, of equal size, is devoted to classified documents. Lynch noted that with books and documents housed on high-density, movable shelving, "we're only 57 percent full."

The Sept. 24 events will include a jump into the site by members of the 82nd Airborne demonstration team, living-history displays representing all periods of U.S. military history, a singing group from Fort Bragg and the Old Guard fife and drum corps from Washington, book signings by military history authors and a demonstration of Civil War photography.

Maj. Gen. David Huntoon, commandant of the War College, will preside, and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter is expected among the luminaries. The building will be dedicated to Gen. Matthew Ridgeway, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division at Normandy and former army chief of staff. A reception inside the building will follow the ceremonies.

Lynch said that by that date a new 1-mile Army Heritage Trail should be open, offering visitors a walking tour past displays and earthworks depicting several periods of American military history.

Events will get under way at 10 a.m. Lynch said "it would be helpful" if those planning to attend call ahead at (717) 245-3702 so that organizers may prepare for the crowd. Besides the public, there will be 2,500 invited guests.

April, the month before the closure, was the busiest in the institute's history, with 524 researchers checking into Upton Hall. Lynch said a similar stream of visitors piled into the new building starting on opening day. The institute has a staff of 52.

The new facility is the second of five buildings being constructed to form the $85 million Heritage and Education Center, located on a 55-acre campus adjoining the War College that was donated to the army by Cumberland County. The Sept. 24 event will include groundbreaking for the third building, a visitor center, expected to start construction next summer.

A fourth building will provide museum conservation services, and the fifth, planned by the end of this decade, will be a military museum. The first building put up serves as interim storage of artifacts destined for the museum.

Visitors to the new building will no longer go through post security. They will, however, be required to present a photo ID and to sign in. The new building is off Army Heritage Drive. Access from I-81 northbound is Exit 49 and from 81 southbound is Exit 48.